Timefall
by Kex8
Summary: When a strange blue box appears in Benjamin Crawner's backyard, he grabs his best friend and the duo meet the man who will change their lives and the way they see the universe forever: The one they call the Doctor.
1. Chapter 1: The Blue Box

Benjamin Crawner awoke to an odd screeching sound outside of his window. He lay frozen for a few seconds as the sound gradually faded away, replaced once again by the sound of crickets and squirrels that inhabited his backyard. He rolled over in his bed to check the time on his alarm clock. 3:57. He was planning on getting up earlier this morning, so why not start now? Besides, he was curious as to what that sound was. Surely it couldn't be the groundskeepers, it was too early for that. Crawner's house was one thin fence away from an apartment complex where every day there would be groundskeepers outside, messing about the leaves with leafblowers. Nobody used a rake in Crawner's neighborhood, which bothered him. It was much cheaper, more effective, and less annoying that the inconsistent machines. But he tried to ignore it as much as he could before he took the mid-day shift at his retail job at what passed for this town's mall.

Crawner slid out of bed rather lazily and threw his clothes on, rather lazily, and then he turned on his computer, rather lazily, and then he went to take a piss, rather lazily, and then he went downstairs to make himself a cup of coffee, rather lazily, and then he opened the blinds on his sliding glass door, rather lazily, and then he noticed the big blue box in his backyard, parked rather lazily, and then he made himself a sandwich, rather lazily, and then he made a sudden realization, rather-oh, wait, he performed this action quite quickly. He ran back to the glass door and looked outside again just to confirm what he, rather lazily, barely noticed seconds before.

And there it stood. A big blue box in his backyard. It had a lit-up sign above the door that read _POLICE_ _BOX,_ and there was some more writing on a small white panel on one of the doors. Crawner ran to the front door to get his shoes, which he threw on as quickly as he could, then ran back to his glass door. He wasn't hallucinating, the box was still out there. He opened the door and walked outside. The bitter cold quickly reminded him of the fact that it was 4 in the morning, something that had slipped his mind by his sudden wakefulness at this new development. He shivered, but continued to make his way towards the box. The writing on the sign read _Police Telephone free for Use of Public - Advice & Assistance obtainable immediately - Officer & Cars respond to all Calls. _Then in rather large letters read **_PULL TO OPEN._**

So Crawner did.

Nothing happened.

The door wouldn't seem to budge no matter which way he tried to open it. Defeated, he gave up on trying to open the strange box and settled for examining it instead. He walked all around it until he made his way back to the front. He looked up at the top of the box, and it had a small blue light that repeatedly flashed on and off. Curious. Then again, this whole situation was curious indeed. He backed away from the box and sat on the grass for a few minutes.

"What are you?" He said. "And where did you come from?" He scoffed at himself. Talking to a telephone box. What had his life come to.

Then, as if by some miracle of chance, the box made a sound. A loud sound. A loud whirring sound. A loud whirring screeching sound. Cranwer backed away from the box slowly until he was pressed up against his house. The box kept getting louder and louder until it suddenly stopped. Crawner let loose a breath that he had not realized he had been holding and ran to the side of his house, out to the front. Once there, he looked up and down his street. _4 AM, nobody's up yet. That's either really good or really bad. _Crawner looked down his street: Nothing unusual. Crawner looked up his street: Again, nothing out of the ordinary. With a quick pull of breath he ran up the hill a bit, to the next duplex that was beside his, and to the farthest unit. He ran up to the door and pounded like a madman.

"Irene! Irene, you better come out here quick! You're not gonna believe this!" He yelled.

Irene Simmet was Crawner's friend and coworker. They had known each other since they were teenagers, and they had become fast friends mainly due to their shared love of science fiction, fantasy, books, movies, music, tv shows, you name it. Ordinarily, Crawner usually walked to Irene's house at 10:30 AM so they could walk to work together, but today was no ordinary day. He kept pounding at the door until she finally answered.

"Ben, it's four in the fricking morning, what do you want at this ungodly hour?" She said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Crawner knew that when she had her mornings ruined, it never ended well.

"Irene, I'm so sorry to wake you up, but there's something in my backyard that you are not going to believe"Crawner said hastily.

"Did one of Jim's dogs crap in your lawn again? Seriously, that's not reason enough to wake me up, man" She said irritably.

"No no no, it's nothing like that." He thought for a moment. "You'll think I'm crazy if I tell you, but it's something you just gotta come see. Get something warm on and come outside. I'll wait for you" He finished. Irene nodded, clearly pissed because Crawner had pulled these kind of antics before, but nonetheless she agreed. A few minutes later she followed him to his backyard, and he showed he the blue box.

"What the hell?!" She exclaimed. "Why do you have a 'Police Box', whatever that is, in your backyard?" She asked.

Crawner shrugged. "I have no idea how it got here. I heard a noise this morning, got up, went out here and I found it just sitting here." He motioned towards the door handle. "Still have no clue how to get inside it though. pulling and pushing didn't work, so I assume it's locked."

For a while the two just stood there dumbstruck until Crawner offered her a cup of coffee and the two sat outside trying to figure out what the telephone box was doing in his backyard and trying to stay warm at the same time. They eventually distracted themselves from the peculiar situation by talking about work and their plans for the weekend, to joking around. During this reparteé, Crawner noticed something strange; the light that was flashing had suddenly stopped doing so. He pointed this out to Irene. The two began to walk towards the box. It began whirring and screeching again, but it sounded different this time. It sounded...Healthier? That was the only word that Crawner felt was fitting. The sound had definitely changed from last time, and that made him uneasy. That's when the two of them heard a loud crash, followed by muffled grunting and screaming coming from inside. They looked at each other and took a step back from the door. A good choice, considering what happened next.

The doors of the blue box flew inwards, and a man stood in the doorway. He looked to be in his late twenties to early thirties, with dark ruffled hair that seemed just slightly too long, green eyes, decent chin, and a smirk on his face. His clothes were tattered and torn, but before they probably were a suit of some kind, perhaps velvet. His shoes caught Crawner's eye, as they seemed so out of place with the rest of his dress. He wore grayish sneakers that, while unfitting for a suit appearance-wise (something he clearly didn't care about at this moment), looked rather comfortable. The man looked at the pair with that same dastardly grin on his face before he spoke.

"I seem to have broken down, could you two mates help me get my engine repaired?"


	2. Chapter 2: The Rabbit Hole

Benjamin Crawner and Irene Simmet stood outside of the blue box staring at the man, who stood there looking back at them, waiting for a reply. After a few seconds (which felt like an eternity to Crawner and Irene) the man got a thoughtful look on his face then said "Where are my manners, would you like to come in? It's much roomier on the inside, if I do say so myself." With a smile he turned on his heel and set off inside the box, dragging the bewildered duo with him. Once they were inside, the doors closed behind them and it was so dark they couldn't see anything but a faint glow in the distance. Then, as if on cue, the lights slowly came on, and Crawner and Irene saw just how 'roomy' it was.

They stood inside of a massive dome-shaped, circular room that had sleek silver-green walls. A console lay in the center of the room, and the floor was sunken down a foot or so only a few feet away from the door. There were guardrails around when there needn't be, but it appeared that the man had found a use for them as wires and tubes and clothing were draped across almost every one of them.

And yet, the coatrack remained empty.

"I do apologize, I was in the middle of a wardrobe malfunction when I had to make an unintended detour and ended up crashing my ship in your backyard." The man looked at the two. "Sorry about that, by the way. I hope I didn't squish any of the flowers." He suddenly perked up. "Flowers! I like flowers!" He then went back to being a bit somber. "But I might've squished the flowers." Crawner and Irene gave each other another look before continuing further into the impossible room. "How can this be?" Crawner asked. "It's a room that's..." The man looked at him excitedly, seemingly forgetting about the flowers, and he started bouncing in anticipation of Crawner's next sentence.

"...A different size on the inside then on the outside?"

The man stood up straight, dropped his shoulders, and glared at Crawner. "That's twice now. It seems the wonder has gone." he said, rather confusedly. He bounced around the center console as he fiddled with controls. "Anyway!" he exclaimed, startling the two. "We have work to do. First off, do either of you have a jumper cable I could borrow?" he said as he skipped over to the two. Crawner still didn't know what to think of him, and he hadn't identified himself in any way. "Before I answer that, just who are you?" he said in the most confident tone he could muster, which wasn't saying much. The man got another grin on his face as he answered.

"I'm the Doctor." he said. "Now, do you have a jumper cable I could borrow?" he asked again. Crawner noted that he spoke with a British-sounding accent, but not one that he could place easily. Accents and languages had been a hobby of his that he picked up recently, and he 'specialized' in the British Isles (and by 'specialized' I mean he watched Red Dwarf, Sherlock, and Misfits in his spare time). Although if he had to take a shot in the dark, he would say that his voice sounded a bit Welsh. Odd for a Welshman to be in Washington, let alone in the United States, but this whole morning has been odd.

Crawner nodded and motioned for the Doctor and Irene to follow him into his house. Once inside, he led them to the garage and pulled out a pair of jumper cables and a few other supplies that the strange man needed. Then they went back into the blue box and the Doctor went to work at repairing his 'ride', whatever that meant. All the while Crawner and Irene were still amazed at the idea of a room that was bigger on the inside. How was that possible? There was clearly something else at hand here.

"So, what's your real name then?" Irene asked the Doctor. He looked up from underneath the console where he made himself comfortable while fixing it and responded. "The Doctor. Just the Doctor." He said. Irene still wan't satisfied. "C'mon, that isn't a proper name." she said. The Doctor looked at her with a slightly offended expression on his face. "Why not?"

"Because it's a profession. Professions aren't names" She argued.

The Doctor stood up and fiddled with the console controls a bit more. "What about judges? And officers? And engineers? And scientists? When they're doing their jobs they're 'proper' names don't matter. When you've broken your hand and you're in a hospital getting it fixed up, do you refer to your caretaker by their given name? No, you say 'Doctor, I seem to have broken my hand, and could use a spot of fixing. Care to do so?'. That's how it works. I'm the Doctor, nice to meet you." he explained.

"Okay, your logic seems solid, but what kind of doctor are you?" she asked, her curiosity overwhelming her.

"Everything. I'm a doctor of everything" he continued, with a hint of finality in his voice signifying the end of the conversation. Irene took that as her cue to stay quiet.

Crawner and Irene continued to look around the room in awe of the design of it. It seemed elegant in a sense, were it not covered in soot and ash. As they made their way around the walls they noticed many small indents that weren't visible from afar. Crawner pressed one and it slid open. _Mechanical doors. Classy._ He thought as he examined the room. He took a gander at some of the clothes that were draped across the guardrails. They seemed quite eclectic; A pinstripe suit, a rainbow coat, a beige jacket with a piece of celery stuck on it, a fez, and a ridiculously long scarf just to name a few. "You're quite the man of fashion I see" he said as he inspected the articles of clothing. The Doctor closed a panel on the console and walked over to him.

"Ah yes, I remember most of these. It's right about time that I change out of this raggedy suit myself." He paused, looked at the ground and then continued on his way to one of the mechanical doors. "Try not to touch anything while I'm gone. She can be touchy with new people." and with that he opened the door and disappeared inside.

"She?" the two said in unison.


	3. Chapter 3: Mazes and Corridors

Crawner and Irene waited in the console room for the Doctor to return. In the meantime, they examined the main console a little more closely. Crawner had never seen a control setup like this before. It looked like a five-year-old put it together, as it was an odd mishmash of buttons and levers and handles and it looked like it could fall apart any second. He got on all fours, rolled onto his back and looked at the bottom of the machine. Same story.

"Jesus, how do you even work this thing?" Crawner said. Irene walked over and crouched beside him.

"I have no idea. He said not to touch anything though, you should probably get out of there before he comes back" she said.

Crawner slid out from underneath the incomprehensible controls and looked at her. "C'mon, Irene. Where's your sense of adventure? I mean, it's not everyday that a spatially impossible box lands in your backyard-well, maybe it is in Roswell, but we're not there now are we?" He said smugly. He hopped up onto his feet and paced around the room. "Now, the Doctor mentioned a 'her', and I'm curious as to what he meant. Any theories, Commander?" (Commander was a nickname that Crawner had given to Irene years ago because of her love of Mass Effect, a shared interest between the two).

Irene smiled. "Well, we seem to be the only ones in the room, however from what I've learned today there's more than meets the eye here. There may very well be more people in this place. There may even be someone in this room right now." The duo turned around and kept their backs to each other. They had developed a few contingency tactics on the off chance that something strange like this happened. Their most well-thought-out plan was C.E.R.: Cooperate, Evaluate, Run. A simple, yet surprisingly effective plan. They had used it mostly to get out of social situations, but it seemed handy here as well. Crawner turned his head towards Irene.

"C.E.R.?" He asked.

"C.E.R." She responded.

The two ran to the door that the Doctor went through and they followed it. It led them to another, much smaller, round room that had six more doors. They could only guess where they led to. "We should stick together. I'd hate to get lost in this place" Irene said. Crawner nodded, and motioned for them to go through the door on the far left. They were led through a confusing maze of twisting corridors and dead-ends before they finally made it to another circular room. They went through a door on the right this time, and ended up back in the console room.

"What the hell? How'd we end up back here?!" Crawner exclaimed.

"We must've looped around somewhere in the maze. Let's go back." Irene said.

The two made their way back to the circular room and picked a door on the right this time. There was another winding, confusing maze and they ended right back where they started.

"Oh come on!" Crawner yelled, becoming increasingly frustrated. "I just want to find the Doctor! Is that so much to ask?" There was a loud rumble, and one of the doors opened up. He looked at Irene who shrugged. They went through it and into another maze, however this one led them downwards and into a completely new room. This one was filled with clothing hanging on racks. It went up until they couldn't see the ceiling, and when they looked down there was a light so bright that they couldn't see what must pass for the floor.

"Doctor?" Irene called into the room. "Doctor, are you in there?"

No response.

"Maybe he's in another room that we passed." Crawner said.

The two backtracked until they came across another door. They opened it cautiously, and looked inside.

"Oh, hello!" A friendly voice called at them. "Say, didn't I tell you two to stay in the console room?" The Doctor was floating on his back in midair. The room he was in was completely round, and all-white. It was well-lit, but there were no visible sources for the light to emit from.

"Okay, what is this now?" Crawner exclaimed. "This place is seriously getting out of hand."

"This is the Zero Room" The Doctor explained. "I wasn't feeling to well, so I thought that I'd relax here for a bit before going to the engine room and repairing the Tardis fully." He continued.

"Wait, what's a Tardis?" Crawner pressed.

The Doctor gave a short laugh. "Why, it's the place you're in right now, mate! The Tardis! Time And Relative Dimension In Space! It's how I get around you know. Speaking of getting around-" The Doctor leapt off his back and placed his feet firmly on the floor. "-I should probably get back to the wardrobe. Since I see you two are not to keen on staying in one place, why don't you come with me? I could use some fashion advice myself" He said. The Doctor walked out of the Zero Room and closed the door behind him. Then he continued down the hall and to the door that Crawner and Irene went to previously. He waltzed inside with a giddiness to his stride.

"Hello old friend! Did you miss me? I sure missed you" The Doctor said, apparently speaking to the room itself. Crawner though for sure that he was absolutely crazy, but he didn't bother calling him out on it. This day was strange enough.

The Doctor ran about the racks of clothing, trying to find something to his liking. He kept returning to the duo when he found something that vaguely interested him and asked their opinion, which they gave as honestly as they could. Finally, he decided on something that seemed to satisfy him. He came back wearing a dark blue button-down shirt, black vest with gray cross-stitches sewn all over the front, a dark green necktie tied in a smaller Hanover Knot, black trousers, and the same gray shoes that he was wearing before but cleaner.

"Oh, I almost forgot! The coup de grầce!" The doctor exclaimed and ran back up a staircase that appeared as he got closer to it. He returned within seconds with a large black single-breasted trenchcoat that came down to just below his knees.

"There we are, new man, new clothes! Now, let's get to the engine room shall we? Avanti!" He said as he walked down the hallway, rather quickly. Shortly after they all had left the room, there was another loud whirring screeching sound and everything began to shake violently. "No no no no, not yet! Don't take off yet, I've still got to return that jumper cable!" The Doctor said at a million miles per hour. His already quick pace got even quicker until he broke out into a full sprint back to the console room. Crawner and Irene followed behind, amazed at his inhuman speed. By the time they got to the console room, the Doctor was already fiddling with the controls and dashing about the podium.

"What's happening?!" Irene cried out. Without breaking his pace, replied. "The Tardis hasn't had her engines properly connected yet, and she's trying to take off. I'm not sure if she's confused, but she only does this when there's a threat nearby." He looked at the Crawner and Irene.

"Brace yourselves"


End file.
